


Born from Stars

by mukkiebee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Multi, My AU, So that's a thing, Starling AU, but i think i want to, i might not do the ship, lance is a starboy, woop woops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-01-01 03:13:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12147408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mukkiebee/pseuds/mukkiebee
Summary: One night Dante McClain sees something fall from the sky - being a curious man, he went to see what it was. Who knew that this would end up being the Blue Paladin of Voltron./// THIS IS BEING REWRITTEN AND POSTED AS A NEW FIC -- 'The Boy of Stars' ////// THIS IS DISCONTINUED!!! ///





	1. Prologue

It was late July, with summers’ heat at full blast in Cuba. The McClain’s were on their way back from San Antonio, after spending the week there – there were celebrations happening in San Antonio for July 25th, which was Revolution Day, the Movement of July 26th place, and the McClain family went every year. At the moment, Dante McClain was the only one awake – the designated driver for the last three hours of driving. It was while he was driving that it happened – a light streaked across the sky and at first Dante thought it was only a shooting star – or falling space debris, which was even more likely than a shooting star. Although it was a shooting star, it was different than Dante had ever experienced before. While shooting stars leave a tail – they were visible for seconds, and often appeared and disappeared into the night sky, this falling star didn’t disappear. After it landed – somewhere Northwest of the car – there was a flash of light and then stillness.

Dante McClain was a curious man, so it really wasn’t his fault that he had started driving towards where he saw the meteor fall – assuming that he could just see where the landing place was from the crater it would leave, take the space junk, and bring it home. Dante loved having things that he didn’t know where they came from – he loved researching said things until he finds out where the piece of junk – or rock – came from.

 

Eventually, Dante came across a clearing, and stared in awe at the scene before him. Where he thought would be a rock or some debris was glowing a vibrant blue. He turned the engine off, and approached the glowing orb – something seemed to be calling out to him. As he approached it, the glowing slowly dimmed until in its’ place lay a child – a few months old at most. Which was strange, but Dante was curious, so he walked back to the car holding the baby in his arms. “Maria,” he whispered loudly to wake his slumbering wife in the passenger seat. 

Maria stirred, and then her eyes opened to see Dante holding an infant in his arms. Maria stared for a few seconds, confused and disoriented. “When.. Who..?” She attempted to question her husband, who seemed to understand the questions.

“Well,” Dante whispered, not wanting to wake the other four children in the car, “I’ll explain in depth later, but I found him in this field,” he explained quietly, holding the child closer to his chest.

“Abandoned?” Maria gasped, the child already melting her heart. 

“…Kind of,” Dante relented, although he wouldn’t call ‘falling from the sky’ as abandoned.

“I’ll hold him for the rest of the drive,” Maria murmured, taking the infant from Dante’s arms, cooing at the baby who was staring up at his new mother. He gurgled, reaching up for her face. His eyes blinked at her slowly, and it was only then that she noticed his eyes were glowing faintly. She brushed it off, perhaps it was the lighting. Dante got into the vehicle, and again set off towards their home.

They arrived home three hours later, just as dawn was breaking at the horizon – although the McClain family would likely sleep for the rest of the day. The children – Dalmacio, the oldest at 14, the twins Madrona and Marilin were 11, the youngest Favian at only 6 years old – were still sleepy enough to not pay attention to their surroundings, and headed straight to bed when they got home. While Maria and Dante were tired, they knew they needed to get their newest member of the family – they’d decided on Leandro – into some clothes and feed him.

As Dante held little Leandro, he knew in his heart that this little boy was going to end up being a part of something bigger than him - than anyone on Earth.


	2. Acceptance

It didn’t take very long for the rest of the McClain family to get attached to having Leandro in the house – as he was an infant, he stayed in the master bedroom with Dante and Maria. It also didn’t take them very long to realize that Leandro was different than what they had expected – well it’s not like much can be expected from a baby who was found in the middle of a field having just fallen from the sky. Though, they never expected his tears to glow when he cried, but sometimes life throws things at you that you weren’t quite expecting.

After Leandro, the McClain’s had three other children, Felipe who was born two years after they found Leandro, Lola who was born three years after Felipe, and little Darien who was born exactly nine years after Leandro was adopted into the family.

There were many mishaps with Leandro – many of which were probably caused by his other worldly origins, but Dante and Maria never told their son that he wasn’t born into their family – because to them, Leandro was their son, whether he was birthed from Maria’s hips or not.

So Leandro grew up with the McClain’s, and there were many, many times where they thought Leandro would catch on that he wasn’t like his siblings, but he didn’t seem to mind. He rarely cried as he got older, growing into a ‘big brother’ kind of person – always there for his younger siblings when they got hurt, and when Dalmacio had twins of his own, they too stayed in the McClain household for many months until Dalmacio and his wife-to-be found a place of their own, and it was nice taking care of the twins. He never got overly emotional – never revealing his true feelings, though sometimes the glowing freckles would give him away if he was too angry, but Marilin had easily taught him how to do his makeup to cover his freckles.

It didn’t seem important to tell Leandro that he wasn’t born into the family until he was applying for the Garrison, and then it felt like they had been lying to their son or brother for his whole life – and technically, they were.

So while Leandro was filling out his application to the Garrison – he’d applied for a scholarship to go, and he wasn’t going to pass it up – his family figured out a way to tell Leandro – or Lance, now that he was filling out his Garrison application he had chosen another name so people would be able to pronounce it, his siblings still laughed at it – that he wasn’t born into the family.

“Family meeting!” Dante had yelled one afternoon in early July, and Leandro had thought it would be like any other family meeting they had as it approached the usual vacation date. He walked into the room, and plopped on one of the twins’ laps, causing her to groan and shove him off of her with a laugh. When things settled down, Leandro noticed an envelope in his fathers’ hands, his heart did a leap. “Before you open this,” Dante said, looking directly at Leandro now, “we have something we need to tell you, it’s not… not important, but either way you are part of this family, so in that sense, it’s not important, okay?”

Warily, Leandro nodded his head, although he was confused. “What is it, papa?” He asked, frowning.

“When we had you,” Maria started, “it was a very unusual situation. Your papa had been driving when he saw something falling from the sky – and like the curious man he is – stopped to look at it. He noticed that it wasn’t like a shooting star, and when it landed a bright light flashed. Your papa then drove to check it out and – there you were. In the middle of a field, you were there, begging for us to take you home.”

Everyone in the room was silent as they waited for Leandro’s reaction. He was quiet for a long time, before he got up and ran from the room, too many thoughts going through his mind to think clearly. All he knew is that suddenly he wasn’t even really part of the family – part of the human race. What he had thought his entire life was a life. He didn’t even notice when he had begun crying, big glowing tears leaving his tear ducts, and now he knew why they were glowing – he wasn’t human. Then what was he? Suddenly, going to the Garrison had more purpose – if he made it to space, perhaps he could find out where he really came from. At least not being human explained the unquenchable desire to reach for the stars.

It wasn’t until the next day that Leandro stumbled out of his room, his stomach protesting against him not eating for so long. When he walked into the kitchen, everyone fell silent upon seeing him. “Oh, Little Star,” he winced, that explained the nickname too, “you’re still _our_ son, you are their brother, just because I didn’t birth you doesn’t make you any less so.”

Leandro’s heart felt lighter, hearing those words coming from his mama’s lips. “I love you,” he told his family, and they all crowded around him, hugging him tightly. Then Dante held up the letter he hadn’t opened yesterday.

“This is from the Garrison,” Dante spoke, excitement spilling into his voice. Leandro took the letter, feeling nervous. What if he didn’t make it? He unsealed the envelope. What if he would never find out where he came from? He pulled out the folded piece of paper. What if they decided he wasn’t good enough? He unfolded the paper. What if he had failed? He began reading…

_Dear Lance McClain,_

_First and foremost, thank you for applying to the Garrison. Second of all, congratulations Lance McClain on getting accepted into our school…_


	3. Unexpected

Leandro – Lance, the boy reminded himself – walked into Garrison, carrying his bags in both arms. He had said goodbye to his family earlier in the day before he boarded his flight to the United States of America. “Where’s the office…?” He mumbled to himself, his Cuban accent thick. He wandered around until he found something that looked like the office. “H-Hello?” He called from the window leading into the office. A girl looked up, and walked over.

“Hello, can I get your name?” She asked, looking through a list of names.

Lance smirked flirtatiously, “The names Lea- Lance. Lance McClain,” He deflated once he realized that he had changed his name, it wasn’t like it was his fault that some people couldn’t pronounce POC names, so he needed to change it to make it easier for them.

The girl smiled fondly, apparently used to people flirting with her. “Your room number is 67, your roommate is Hunk Garrett,” she said, handing him a card that had his face on it – it would be his I.D. Leandro stared at the name on it. _Lance McClain._ He supposed he should start getting used to calling himself Lance. He smiled at the woman before he followed the directions to his room. When he walked in, Hunk was already there unpacking his things into the dresser he chose.

“You must be Hunk,” Lance said, smiling at the bigger boy. The boy turned to him, and smiled widely.

“Ye-Yeah, I’m Hunk! Hunk Garrett! Well, my name isn’t Hunk, but my name is hard to pronounce so I just go by Hunk,” the guy rambled slightly, making Lance automatically like him because he was in a similar situation.

“Well, now’s a good time as any to tell you my name isn’t Lance, it’s Leandro, but I needed to change it so people would be able to pronounce it here,” Lance told the boy in front of him, setting his stuff down on the unclaimed bed.

“Huh,” Hunk said, cocking his head. “Both of us go by different names for the sake of other people. Although, I do like the name Hunk. Do you want me to call you Leandro?”

“No, I need to get used to being called Lance, to be quite honest.”

Thus, began the first friendship Lance had that wasn’t from his school back in Cuba. They got along very well, Lance often cooked with Hunk whenever they had the free time to do so. When the first semester came and Lance found out that he was only a cargo pilot, he wasn’t as upset as he thought it would be. Okay, that’s a lie. Ever since his family told him that he literally _fell out of the sky_ , Lance had been dying to go to space as a fighter pilot. To be closer to the stars. Suddenly his childhood obsession with going to space made sense – he wanted to be closer to where he came from. For a while, Lance was confused why a falling star would birth a child, but then the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

Like a human, stars are born, then they grow old, and finally die. Unlike humans, stars form black holes when they die. Lance wondered if that meant anything to him, as someone who fell out of the sky as a shooting star. What would happen when he died?

To distract himself from such thoughts, Lance began a rivalry with Keith Kogane, the star Fighter Pilot. He started it on the basis that ‘he got to be a Fighter Pilot, and I didn’t,’ and let it fester from there. It worked mostly, Lance rarely thought about his origins after he began the rivalry – but then Shiro and the rest of the crew on Kerberos disappeared – or _died_ , but Lance refused to believe that the man he looked up to was dead. He himself came from space, how hard was it to believe that an alien took the crew – though Lance thought all of these things, he never spoke them out loud. Not even to Hunk, who quickly became his best friend. After Shiro disappeared, so did Keith, and there left the distraction and slowly the thoughts about where he came from and how it happened started popping up.

Then suddenly, Lance was a Fighter Pilot, with Hunk as his Engineer, and a boy called Pidge Gunderson as his Technician. Pidge and Lance got along, but it took some time in order for the two to get past their differences and realize just how similar they were to each other. Although they failed the simulation every time, Lance knew it was because he was starting to go lax – to worry more about the things going on inside his head than actually working his way through the simulation.

Even more unexpected and sudden, Shiro came back. Albeit, falling out of the sky – and for one heart stopping moment Lance thought that there was going to be another someone like him – but it was even better, it was Shiro, and suddenly they were flying into space in a giant blue lion to save Earth and the rest of the Universe. Suddenly his dream of finding out where he came from wasn’t so unlikely, and it was even a high possibility.


	4. Powers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idk how to title things tf. also i haven't mentioned but my tumblr is @/legendarylangst so yeet hmu

Being in space was cool, Lance decided. While he might be someone who everyone laughs at – or with, depending on the situation – he loved it. He loved making a fool of himself to make someone else laugh – even if sometimes the jokes didn’t come across as jokes and he got yelled at for them. One thing he noticed while in space was that it was like his heart was singing. Not literally, he just felt good all the time. He realized how dumb that sounded, but it was like being closer to the stars, part of the stars, he was home. More home than he had felt while in Cuba – although that was a close second to the feeling. Even flying in Blue outside of the Castle of Lions made him feel better, and Blue had noticed. She often bothered him until he flew with her to bond more. The second thing he noticed was the lack of information about what he was, even if he didn’t know the answer to that himself. He took chances to ask while they were on foreign planets, but he had only been able to gather what he deemed as the _**Legends of Star Children**_. He didn’t know what was fabricated by the people to be on the good side of Voltron, or what was truth told by generations of people. He even found a library in the Castle, but as it was all in Altean, he didn’t know what any of it said.

Lance kept his true origins secret from the rest of the team, of course. He didn’t know how they would react, he didn’t want Allura or Coran to think he was evil. He kept the books he found around different planets in his room, deciding to keep them even if he couldn’t read them. That’s when he got the idea of asking Pidge to make a translator – one that would translate the alien languages to someone’s natural language when they wore special glasses. Pidge was surprised, but they quickly agreed, realizing something like that would be helpful when trying to write alliances with planets. It was only a matter of time before they were finished, and Lance began wearing them at night when he was alone so he could read the books he got from various planets.

In one of the books that an alien had given him, _Children of Stars_ , Lance reads about the origins of the Starlings, which he finds out his race is called. It tells of a girl named Hozant, of the planet Strazu. She was born from the First Star Death, and was alone for quite some time. While reading the legend, Lance finds out that while Starlings are born from different Stars, on different planets, they have one similar feature – bright blue, glowing eyes. There was one of which was born on the Galra planet, and even then, he had blue, glowing eyes.

It was all very interesting to find out, but it just made Lance feel even more alone. He knew he should tell Allura and Coran – and even the rest of the team, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He knew, logically, they wouldn’t be mad at him for keeping the secret – they may be upset, and hurt, but not mad, but that didn’t mean his anxiety didn’t let him think so for long. He knew they wouldn’t hate him, but what if they did?

Instead, Lance continued to figure things out alone, using Pidge’s new glasses to learn as much as he could about Starlings – which, admittedly, he knew that Coran and Allura could help, but still, he couldn’t bring himself to admit it to them. Though, sometimes things didn’t work out how you wanted them to, and the universe, Lance decided, was very much against him keeping this secret.

It started small – when they were in battle on a ship without their Lions, one of the sentries he was battling just crumpled into itself. He didn’t remember exactly what he was thinking, all he knew is that he was getting tired of battling the sentry and didn’t want to anymore and wished that his fight with the sentry would just be done already – that the sentry would just disappear. And then it did, with a bright light that Lance noticed came from his hands. Lance swallowed thickly as he started at the spot where the Galran sentry had been moments before, when Shiro’s voice through the comm. distracted him. “Lance! Keith! Pidge! Hunk! Retreat!” Those words set Lance into motion as he fell back to where his Lion was stationed.

Once they were back in the Castle of Lions, in the bridge room (is that what it’s called?), Allura began informing them that they had done amazing. “You guys were amazing, but there was a mysterious signal that came from the room that Lance had been in,” she turned her gaze to the Blue Paladin.

Lance smiled flirtatiously, hiding how he was secretly terrified about what she had just said, “It must have been me getting distracted by thinking of your gorge-”

“Not now, Lance!” Shiro interrupted, exasperated with the Blue Paladin.

Lance laughed, “Sorry, continue Princess.” He said, an easy-going smile on his face.

Allura rolled her eyes at his antics, and continued on. “It was a signal similar to a black hole, and I’m concerned that the Galra may have created a weapon with the force of a black hole,” Lance’s stomach dropped. None of the books he had collected – altogether there had been 13 – mentioned Starlings being able to do that. Maybe it wasn’t him? “Did you see anything, Lance?”

Lance jerked out of his thoughts, and shook his head. “No, not that I remember,” besides the sentry disappearing and a bright flash of light before that happened, “only a bright flash of light a few ticks before Shiro told us to get out of there.”

“Interesting,” Allura said, furrowing her eyebrows as she thought. She turned to the Green Paladin, “Pidge, would you be able to hack into security cameras and see what went down during the battle?” She asked the youngest Paladin.

“I should be able to,” Pidge said, scratching her chin, “unless they’ve suddenly upped their security measures on their cameras, I’ll be able to. Give me a few minutes,” the Green Paladin then set to work, much to Lance’s chagrin. What was he going to do? He sat back on his seat, holding his face in his hands.

“Lance, buddy, you okay?” Hunk asked, looking at said boy.

Lance looked at Hunk, “I’m fine, just a little headache,” which wasn’t a complete lie – it wasn’t the whole truth either, though. He did have a headache – though he suspected that it might have something to do with the fact that he could have _possibly_ created a mini black hole. What the heck.

“Are you sure there isn’t anything more?” Shiro asked, moving to stand closer to Lance. Lance looked up at Shiro.

“Yeah, I mean, I have a bit of a headache now, but that’s all I remember. A flash of light.” And then the sentry disappearing.

They were silent for a while, leaving Lance to his thoughts. What kind of creatures were Starlings? Were they evil? No, everything he’s read about them have pointed towards them being pure, good, angel-like beings. Though, surely, creating black holes doesn’t count as pure, or good, or angel-like? Maybe no one knew what a Starling really was at all – made assumptions. But still, from reading the books, he could tell that Starlings weren’t _evil_. But maybe they weren’t inherently good either. He also could tell that if he just told everyone now, that Allura and Coran could tell him more – if they knew more anyway, but what if they were evil? Lance felt sick to his stomach as the thoughts consumed him.

Pidge’s voice cut through the thoughts with words he was dreading to hear, “I’m in!”


	5. Rise of Starlings

Lance’s stomach dropped when Pidge spoke, and while the others rushed forward, Lance hung back. His hands were clasped together in front of him, twisting nervously. What if they found out, and they hated him? What if everything he’s found about himself - was alluding to the fact that Starlings were evil, and he was evil? He knew - knew - that he wasn’t evil, but would anyone else believe him? Lance swallowed thickly, and walked over to where the others were standing to look at the large screen.

Lance watched closely, even if he didn’t want the others to find out, he was still curious what happened when there was a flash of light. He watched as he battle the sentry - he knew it was the one that he had blasted away. To where? He didn’t know. That was the problem, wasn’t it? He focused back to the video, but suddenly the video feed cut out.

“What the hell?” Pidge spoke, watching as the feed turned to static. “What happened?”

It was then that Lance should have told the others - but still, he couldn’t risk it. This team was his family now, he couldn’t risk losing them, even if the risk was low. He swallowed thickly, listening to them talk was making him feel sick.

“On it,” Pidge said, and began typing away at their computer. Lance wondered what Pidge would find, if they would find that Lance was the one who caused the energy. It only took a few dobashes for Pidge to find the signature, and everyone was standing in front of the large screen again. “This is what I found,” Pidge spoke, pointing at the screen.

Coran spoke next, “Wait a tick,” his voice came slowly, “that looks familiar… that’s the energy quintessence gives off!” His eyes were wide, “It’s very similar to how Voltron would read -”

“What do you mean ‘similar to Voltron?’ I thought Voltron was the only weapon of its kind?” Hunk said, his eyes wide with worry.

“No, not like our Voltron. The alloy that our Voltron was made from,” Allura continued, smiling at Hunk. “But that doesn’t make sense - the last time we saw this signature - well, my father saw it… As did Zarkon.”

Coran picked up where Allura left off, “Well, before Allura was born, Alfor found a meteor - which is what your Lions are made of. Pidge, see what you can find out about the signature of what happened. I fear that Zarkon may have found another meteor,” he said softly, looking slightly distraught.

Lance opened his mouth, then shut it again. This was giving him a headache. He needed to read the newest book he had gotten, see if it would help him in any way; if he could find out what he was - if he was good or evil.

Shiro stood, looking at his team. “Whatever that was, we need to find it, and make sure that Zarkon can’t use it,” he said to them.

Keith cut in, “Shiro, whatever it was, it didn’t attack Lance - it attacked the Galra. Maybe it was Blue.”

“The Paladins of Old were thought to have unlocked all of the powers - but perhaps that notion was incorrect,” Allura spoke to everyone, _or it was me_ , Lance thought, feeling sick to his stomach. Something on his face must have looked especially off, because Allura looked concerned and asked him, “Are you feeling alright, Lance?”

“Yeah,” Lance lied quickly, “the headache is just getting worse. Can I go lay down?”

“Get some rest,” Shiro told Lance before Allura could say anything, “you’ve deserved it.” Lance nodded, and turned to leave. As he was walking out the door, a voice stopped him.

“Lance?” It was Keith. Lance turned, looking at the black haired teen expectantly. “Feel better.”

Lance smiled, and then left. He walked into his room, laid on his bed, and stared at the ceiling for awhile. He turned and grabbed the newest book - the fourteenth one, called _The Rise of Starlings_ \- and grabbed Pidge’s glasses and begun reading.

_Starlings are what some may consider angelic beings, others consider them evil. It all depends on who you ask, and what they’ve witnessed. The truth is, Starlings are both angelic and demonic - their surroundings are what determine the good or evil inside of the being. In this biography you will find out things about the Starlings that not many know - their true origin, some of their abilities. Of course, Starlings will never be fully understood, but the goal of this is to enlighten you._

_Many stories have been told about their beginning - some talking of Hozant and the First Star Death. While she was a Starling - and while the First Star Death is important, this is not the beginning of Starlings. Starlings are born from special stars - stars not like the others. When they die, they expand, and then collapse, much like normal stars. What is abnormal is the fact that when they collapse, they don’t form a black hole. They form an element known by many names - Voltron, Krinetica, and Linox being just a few of these names. Once this element is formed, the dead star once again expands; the excess gas from the star forces apart the Linox, shattering it into many smaller bits. It is this in which Starlings are born - inside of the bit of Linox is quintessence. This quintessence gives the element the ability to travel to different realities, because it is concentrated down so far that it is pure quintessence in a solid form. The pieces of Linox shoots through space - through realities - and finds itself a place to land. A place to call itself home._

_When a piece of the star falls down to the surface of the planet, if there is a will strong enough, the element takes form almost immediately. From there, Starlings are born._

_This is the Rise of Starlings._

Lance stopped reading there, taking in the new information. Voltron? He was born from Voltron? What did that even mean? Lance knew what he needed to do, even if he didn’t want to at all. He needed to talk to Coran or to Allura, but that meant that he’d have to tell either of them that he wasn’t completely human. Or human at all. Another wave of anxiety washed through him, would they accuse him of being evil? They seemed to assume the worst when they saw the footage - then again, they were in a Galra ship, fighting Galra soldiers. The only reasonable conclusion that they could have made was that the Galra had made some sort of weapon.

The headache Lance was beginning to feel earlier was coming back in full force, so he decided it would be better if he went to bed rather than reading more. Tomorrow he could read more.

Tomorrow, Lance would not read more until very late.

The sirens went off before anyone was awake - not even Shiro had gotten up to begin training alone in his room. Lance, for once, wasn’t the last one into the bridge room, instead it was Pidge who stumbled into the room last. Judging by her crooked glasses and messed up hair, she hadn’t slept more than three vargas. Lance felt for her, because while he had slept more than three, it didn’t feel like it. The headache he had gone to sleep with had followed him into consciousness. He smiled at her, trying to comfort her with even the smallest of actions. She smiled back, and then everyone’s attention was called towards Allura.

“I’m sorry for the rude awakening, Paladins, but we have received a distress call from one of our alliances,” Allura said, her gaze traveling from Paladin to Paladin, “I’m not sure what is the problem, but they requested our immediate assistance,” she gave a sympathetic smile to the defenders of the universe. “I would not have woken you if I thought it could wait.”

“We understand, Princess,” Shiro said, smiling soothingly at the Altean Princess. His gaze turned to the tired teenagers, “Alright, team, let’s get some food goo to go, and head out,” he announced, understanding that if they wanted to perform at least decently, they would need energy. The Paladins nodded, and began to file out of the room.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to send exhausted Paladins to protect Planet Oz’ak in the Venai Cluster against a Galra attack. Keith, Shiro, and Hunk were doing better than Lance and Pidge were - exhaustion being felt to the bone for the two Earthlings. Lance didn’t think anything of it, they were winning, barely, but they were winning.

Lance was tired; tired of being awake, and tired of fighting against the Galra. They hadn’t formed Voltron - _what if it had been called Linox? Or Krinetica?_ \- Lance snorted at the thought, and continued to fight. There had been no need to form Linox - Lance snickered to himself - because the fleet was small enough for them to handle separately. Lance was battling a group of four of them, annoyance was quickly consuming his mind. He was sick of fighting these ships, sick of battling against these Galra who had already been kicked out once. They needed to stay out.

At that thought, there was a burst of energy, a feeling so raw that Lance had no other choice but to push it out and away from him. The burst of energy was followed by a flash of bright light, blinding Lance and anyone near him. When the light faded, Lance stared in shock. Where the four ships were flying, was now empty air. He turned Blue to make sure they were gone, but there was no trace of any Galra ship being there at all. Lance felt a wave of nausea take over as he realized that this was his doing.

_“Great job, Paladins. Meet back at the Castle, there was another burst of energy.”_

Allura’s voice cut through Lance’s mind as he sat in shocked silence. He didn’t say anything as he moved Blue towards the Castle of Lions. He walked to the bridge room numbly, listening as Pidge and Hunk theorized about what the energy could have been - he just wanted to scream _**it was me!**_ But knew he couldn’t, because if he did they would know the truth, and he wasn’t ready for them to know, not when he barely knew anything himself. Not when he wasn’t sure if he was good or evil.

“We located where the burst of energy took place, but as we have no visuals, we can only specify the location to where Lance and Keith were battling. Did either of you see anything?” Allura asked, turning her attention to the two aforementioned Paladins.

Lance shook his head slowly, still in shock from what had happened. “Just.. the flash of light again,” he lied, though he felt terrible for doing so. He swore to himself he would come clean - he just wanted to know more about himself. He wanted to know for certain that he wasn’t inherently evil.

Keith spoke then, “I felt the energy - it burst and then there was the flash of light and the Galra ships that we were fighting were gone,” he said, looking at Lance oddly. _He knows_ , Lance’s mind whispered, causing him to be engulfed in anxiety again. What if he did know? Would he say anything to the others? Maybe he should - it would make things easier, or harder, for Lance. On one hand, he didn’t have to tell them himself, but on the other hand, they would be mad because he didn’t tell them himself.

Seeking to break the silence that had fallen over the team, Lance asked, “Do you have a headache?” abruptly, because he remembered getting a headache yesterday.

Keith slowly shook his head, “Not yet, at least. You didn’t get a headache until later, though, so who knows?”

Lance nodded, and closed his eyes so he wouldn’t see Keith’s searching gaze anymore.

“Do you?” Keith asked Lance, forcing Lance to shake his head slowly - he didn’t. All he felt was a fuzzy feeling just under his skin, buzzing like a fly against a window while you stare outside. It was pent up energy, Lance knew, but he didn’t know how to relieve it. “That’s good, I think,” Keith’s voice startled Lance out of his musings.

“Though, I do feel like I’m about to pass out, so I’m going to bed,” Lance announced, standing up. He did feel tired, but he would stay up for awhile reading more about the Starlings. Once he reached his room, he immediately began reading.

_Starlings have many unique characteristics - the most obvious being their glowing freckles. Other than that, when they cry, their tears glow, and when they’re angry, their eyes glow. The color varies slightly from Starling to Starling, but they can all be characterized as a bright blue-ish white color. There are other features that Starlings may earn throughout their life - only through training their inner quintessence into a physical form to do what they want it to. The physical form differs from Starling to Starling as well, making each Starling unique and beautiful._

_These beings also have many other things that define them - different abilities that every Starling can adapt and evolve into their own personalized ability. This ability begins with the Starling being able to move objects or people to a different reality - though because only a Starling and Linox can successfully travel between realities, this is only successful some of the time, if the Starling truly wants them to survive the trip. If a Starling is angry enough, they may also instead create a mini black hole._

_From here, Starlings can develop their abilities one of two known ways - occasionally both. One way they can develop the quintessence in their body is teleportation - travel through one reality into another and back into the original reality in a different location. The other is expanding upon the original ability - they can begin creating larger wormholes that last longer times, though, because only they and the element Linox can travel through the wormhole, it’s not very useful unless you wish to cause more damage._

Lance stopped reading there, feeling sick to his stomach. He was a weapon, is what he concluded from reading the few paragraphs. He needed to talk to Allura and Coran immediately. He checked the time - oh maybe not immediately, but in the morning, Lance promised himself. _He would talk to Allura or Coran in the morning._


	6. The Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finds out more about Starlings, and attempts to talk to someone about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment what you liked! I'd love to hear what you think! Also, hit me up on tumblr, which is LegendaryLangst!

Talking to Allura / Coran in the morning didn’t work out as planned. Allura decided that the Paladins of Voltron needed to do exercises again in order to be closer and understand one another more. She also decided that they needed to train more because the team thought that the Galra had somehow gotten the power of black holes to work with them. Lance was slightly bitter that he didn’t get the chance to talk to Allura or Coran, but he swore to himself that as soon as they were allowed a break he would.

The break didn’t come until close to dinnertime. The team was exhausted - Lance especially because he kept stressing about accidentally using his… gifts… against his own teammates. He didn’t, thank goodness, but he was still careful. He knew he shouldn’t put off talking to Allura and/or Coran any longer, so once he was done eating he waited in the bridge room for either of the aforementioned people to walk into the room. The doors opened and Lance turned to face whoever had come in. Allura. His heart dropped slightly, having hoped it would be Coran, but a promise was a promise, even if it was to himself.

Lance swallowed the nervousness he felt accumulating in his gut, and straightened his back. “Hey, Princess,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. 

Allura hesitated for a few seconds, eyeing the Cuban boy suspiciously. “Hello, Lance.” 

“I uh, I wanted to talk to you?” Lance cursed himself for the sentence ending in a question rather than a clear statement.

Allura didn’t speak for a few seconds, anticipating Lance would go on. “Okay… About what?”

“I uh,” Lance felt anxiety grip his throat, making him unable to speak. His eyes teared up, every fear he had about telling one of the others suddenly coming to the forefront of his mind. He cleared his throat, avoiding eye contact with Allura.

Hearing him choke up, the Princess softened the look on her face into something more comforting. She had thought that he would be attempting to flirt with her again, but it was apparent that this was not the case. “Take your time, Lance. Let’s sit,” she said, approaching the Blue Paladin. She sat next to where he was standing, tugging on his pant leg for him to sit. Once doing so, she rest a hand on his shoulder, in what she hoped was a comforting matter.

Lance took his spot next to the Princess of Altea, and stared at his hands. He flinched at her touch, but willed himself to relax into it. He looked at Allura, unsure where to start. He opened his mouth to speak, only to feel fear grip his throat again, causing him to cough and look back to his hands. He was silent for another few moments, trying to collect his thoughts. He took a deep breath and willed himself to talk. “I’m, uh, not human. I think,” Lance began, looking at the floor, not allowing himself to look up. “Well, no, I know I’m not human. But I was raised on Earth,” he paused, unsure how to continue. He touched his thumb to each of his fingertips, repeating the action over and over to try and dispel the anxiety in his chest. He heard Allura’s confused noise, and ducked his head farther. “I didn’t know until I tried out for the Garrison - which is a piloting school.”

Allura watched as Lance began talking, her eyes widening. What did Lance mean he wasn’t human? What else would he be? He was raised on Earth - therefore, human. Her mind went to Keith, knowing his Galra background. She conceded that he may not be human, but two Paladins - from Earth - not human? It was strange. Allura listened closely as he began his story, but when he stopped, she quickly assured him, “I’m here, and your team won’t leave you because of this. They didn’t leave Keith.” 

Lance nodded, tears filling his eyes once again. He wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt, and stood abruptly. “I can’t do this right now,” he said, and before Allura could stop him, he was out the door and heading to his rooms. His anxiety had gripped his entire body and rendered him useless in explaining what he was. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t all good, that maybe there was a part of him that was evil. He didn’t want to hurt his team. Maybe he should read more before deciding on telling someone. But now Allura knew, well, kind of, but she knew he wasn’t human. She would ask questions, but she said that they - the team - would support him. What if they didn’t? She didn’t even know what kind of _not human he was_. For all she knew, he could be some sort of evil species that created black holes - no, not black holes, a wormhole, some sort of portal that lead from this dimension, to another. _Oh wait, he was._

Lance collapsed on his bed, gripping his pillow with all his might. Maybe he wasn’t evil, but he was still dangerous. He could still hurt his team, and to him, that was worse than being evil. Well, they were the good guys, so logically, that made him evil. He felt like throwing up, and moved to his connected bathroom in case he did. He sat next to the toilet staring blankly at the wall across from him. He should just leave. But how would they form Voltron? He’ll stay.

Lance felt his stomach cramp up, and he turned to the toilet just in time for him to spill the contents of it into the bowl. He immediately began crying as he heaved, gripping the side of the toilet. He leaned back, wiped his mouth, and shivered. It’s been awhile since he’s thrown up because of anxiety. He stood up, and walked to the sink. He stared at himself in the mirror, and shook his head. He should have known that he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to tell Allura. Perhaps Coran, but definitely not Allura. He turned the sink on, and set about washing his face and brushing his teeth. Once he was finished with that, Lance sat in his bed and grabbed the book. He turned to the page he was currently on, and began reading.

_… No one knows for certain if Starlings are good or bad, but they tend to lean towards being good. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, which leads into the story of Trovix Wa’aren. Trovix was a Starling, but instead of being good, he was evil. He was born on Durasteg, a planet with reptilian based beings. Unfortunately for him, a very abusive family found and raised him, leading him to become corrupt. When a Starling is bad, or evil, it isn’t good. Their eyes and markings, instead of glowing a vibrant blue, begin to dull into a dark purplish black color. The energy that emits from them also turns this dark and brooding color, allowing others to see that they are Corrupt._

_As Trovix grew up, he began to hate his family more and more as the years progressed. He was 17 years old when his energy first back lashed against the abuse. After that it was nearly impossible to stop Trovix, he grew to enjoy the looks of pain on the ones who had adopted him into their family. Of course, after they all perished due to his torture, his thirst for revenge wasn’t satisfied. The Linox running through his system was broken - corrupted, as stated before. The Linox took control of the vessel that it was using, and began to lash out against innocent Duras. Trovix gained control of his mind again when the Linox thought it had gotten enough revenge. Upon becoming conscious, Trovix saw the devastation around him and wept for those who had died at his hands, unknowingly or not. Later, Trovix disappeared. When he was found, he was dead, having committed suicide as payment for those lives he had taken._

_This is why Starlings must be cared for their entire lives. Should the Linox feel as if their vessel is being mistreated, it will become Corrupt and lash out against those it feels abused them. Be warned of the Corrupt Starlings, and their uncontrollable power._

Next to the passage he read was a photo of what Lance assumed was a Corrupted Starling. The Blue Paladin put down his book, and stared down at it with narrowed eyes. If he had just read a bit more he would know the tell-tale signs of an evil - _Corrupt Starling_ \- and he’d know he wasn’t evil. Then again, that wouldn’t stop the others from thinking that he was evil, which brought up another problem. How would he convince them that he wasn’t evil? That he was good, and that he only used his powers - energy? - against the Galra, or other enemies. He closed his eyes, meaning to go to bed after reading that. He was exhausted, first from throwing up, and now from reading. He rubbed his face, and sighed deeply. How would he tell his team?

The last thought that went through his mind as Lance fell asleep was that he was glad he wasn’t treated horribly at home.

The next morning, Lance awoke to flashing red lights and sirens. He jumped up, and immediately began getting ready for the mission. He ran out and was proud to say he wasn’t the last one there, Pidge would be. He grinned at everyone, carefully avoiding the meaningful looks he was getting from Allura. He rocked on his feet, “What’s the situation?” He asked, cocking his head as he tried to guess from the look on Coran’s face. Perhaps a Galra fleet was causing troubles in one of the planets they had sworn to protect? Or maybe they were going to be saving a planet from a Galra fleet today. He liked those days, the looks on the people’s faces when they thanked them made him feel warm inside. It proved that what he was doing was worth it. Worth the nightmares, worth the anxiety, worth the trauma. Worth being away from home. His heart ached, and he forced himself to pay attention.

“Hello, Paladins,” Coran said, looking between the five soldiers. It hurt him to have such young people as soldiers, but he wasn’t about to deny the help. He was always thinking of ways to get them to relax, but nothing he thought of seemed suitable for humans. “Today you will be taking a break from the Galra, to protect a planet from a different kind of danger. We received a distress signal from the Jroeni Cluster, the planet called Kraan, to be exact. The people there, the Kraa, have asked for our help in getting rid of a threat. They didn’t specify what was troubling them, so we will be bringing the Castle of Lions as well as the Lions to help, just to be safe. Now go, get ready.”

The Paladins nodded, and headed off to their hangars to get into their Lions. Lance had a feeling they were going to be facing a horrible monster, something likely made by the Galra, and something worse than the thing they fought on the Balmera. Which was hard enough to defeat, Lance couldn’t imagine something worse. One thing wasn’t adding up in his head about that theory. 

Why didn’t the Galra just send it straight to them? Why lead them to this planet? Were they planning something elsewhere that would be more dangerous than what they were about to face? Was the distress signal false? The only way to find out would be to go there, and see for themselves.


	7. Kraan's Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kraan sent a distress signal... What could it be?

The Castle of Lions approached Kraan slowly. Lance was in Blue, staring ahead with concern. He hoped they could save them in time. The planet looked as if there was a storm that covered the entire surface. Dark purple lightning flashed between black clouds, giving Lance the chills. Something about this place seemed  _ off.  _

 

“Does anyone else feel that?” Lance whispered, but no one answered. He looked to the communication cameras and frowned when everyone was shaking their heads. He wondered what he was feeling. It wouldn’t hit him until they were on the surface and he saw what they were against.

 

They landed a few minutes later, but nothing seemed out of ordinary other than the storm clouds. Having seen weirder weather, none of the Paladins showed concern about it, assuming it was normal for Kraan.

 

Shiro stepped forward, “What’s the situation?” He asked, taking charge.

 

The greenish-blue reptilian alien stepped forward also. This one seemed to be the leader - a golden halo surrounded their head. “Do you not see these clouds?” He hissed, glaring at Shiro and the other Paladins.

 

Pidge spoke up, pushing up her glasses. “We come across many different planets with different types of weather. We don’t know what’s normal and what isn’t for the planets we come across. Is this not normal?” She asked, cocking her head. She knew it wasn’t, judging by the king’s reaction. 

 

“No, it isn’t normal! It’s because of the… the  _ thing.  _ It’s… corrupted!” The alien said, making Lance turn to attention in surprise.

 

“What do you mean it’s corrupted?” Lance asked, his eyes wide with fear. Could it be…?

 

The king looked at him, frowning. “He’s killing everyone that approaches him. He’s gone from blue to blackened purple.”

 

Lance glanced around at his teammates, gauging their reactions. He had a feeling he knew what this was. He found it ironic that he had just read about it.

 

Allura stepped forward from beside Lance and Keith, “May you take us to where they are?” She asked, “So we can see what we should do?”

 

The orange-pink reptilian next to the king stepped forward, “I’ll take you to him,” a soft voice said softly, and she began to walk towards a mountain in the distance. It was a long time before they reached the base of the mountain. “I will take you no further. I have no wish to be killed. He is at the top, please make sure you fix it.” She stared directly into Lance, as if she could see that Lance was a Starling. Maybe she could.

 

Fix it? Could Lance do such a thing?

 

The Paladins shared a long look, before they nodded and began walking up the mountain. “Should we get our lions?” Hunk asked, looking between the others and Lance. “That seems like a good plan, y’know. Safety of the big robotic lions that can protect us from dangers.”

 

Shiro hushed Hunk, “We will decide if we need our lions after seeing what we’re dealing with.”

 

Hunk made a noise and tried to convince the others to be on his side. He turned to Lance, “You see the danger, right?” 

 

Lance smiled at his buddy, “I do, but I think Shiro is right. We should check out what we’re against first.” Lance wished he’d read more the night before. He’d know if he could help. Is whatever they were going to even Corrupted? If it wasn’t, then what else could have that much of an impact on their surroundings? Maybe it was a Galra fleet - they had purple and black associated with them too. 

 

As they neared the top, it became apparent to Lance that he was right on the first part. He could see him from here. It hit Lance all at once that he wasn’t Corrupted. He couldn’t be, the Linox inside of him wasn’t taking control. He wasn’t dark, at least, not like this. Sure, his mind wasn’t the greatest place to be, but he wasn’t broken. He wasn’t defeated.

 

Allura gasped, covering her mouth. “This is terrible,” she whispered, “I’ve never seen one in person…”

 

“What is it?” Keith asked, his sword already out.

 

Lance let Allura explain, not having it in him to do so himself. He was heartbroken. He could  _ feel  _ the Linox inside of the stranger pulling at his own essence. He swallowed thickly, turning away. They weren’t yet close enough for the Starling to notice that they were there, but close enough to see them in all their glory. The way that the Linox lashed out in pulsating dark purple and black energy. It was like looking directly into a rift between the worlds. Blindingly hypnotizing.

 

“He’s a Starling, very rare creatures who are generally pure beings. They are born from what made Voltron, when a chunk falls to the surface of a planet. They are then raised as any child would be on their planet. Sometimes.. Sometimes they’re abused and become corrupted. And the Voltron inside of them becomes corrupted and takes control and gets revenge.”

 

Lance decided to finally talk here, “But not all of them are like that,” he said softly, looking at the stunned faces of the others. “They can be great and use their abilities for good. A lot of them do, actually. There’s only been a handful of times where the Starling becomes Corrupted. The most notable was that of Trovix, who killed himself after finding out what he had done.”

 

“Why do you know that?” Pidge asked, narrowing her eyes. “Or were you making it up?” She asked, finding it hard to believe that Lance just  _ knew _ stuff like that.

 

“No I did-”

 

“No, he’s right,” Allura said, seeming to understand in a moment why he knew the information. It must have been what he was going to tell her before. “He’s absolutely right. I read somewhere that another Starling can fix a Corrupted one.”

 

“How?” Lance and Keith asked simultaneously, but Pidge seemed doubtful.

 

“Where would we find another Starling if they’re so rare?” She asked, frowning at Allura.

 

Allura ignored Pidge in favor of answering Keith and Lance. “In a book we have in the Castle, I read that if another Starling approaches the Corrupted, their essence can connect and fuse together for a short time. It’s how each Starling can communicate. Not how they themselves communicate, but how the Voltron inside of them communicate.”

 

Lance stared at Allura, trying to process the information. “So what you’r-”

 

Pidge, obviously frustrated, cuts him off before he can ask, “Why are we discussing an option that isn’t possible?” She asked, looking between Allura, Keith, and Lance. Her eyes lock on Lance, who’s staring at Allura intensely.

 

“So what you’re saying is…” Lance trailed off, trailing his gaze to the glowing mass of purple and black.

 

“Yes,” Allura said softly, “that’s the only way to do it without killing him.”

 

Lance looked back to Pidge, “It’s an option.” He said quietly, trying to figure out how he should approach the Corrupted.

 

“Lance? Buddy? What are you saying?” Hunk asked, his eyes wide.

 

Lance felt another strong pull from the Corrupted Starling, and then let himself be consumed by it. He trusted himself. He trusted that his Linox would win. If that’s what was going to happen.

 

“There’s something I haven’t told you all,” Lance started, surprising himself. Strangely, he was calm. He stared not at his teammates, but at the Corrupted Starling. He felt the gazes of his teammates on him, but it didn’t fill him with anxiety as it would have if he had done this before. He felt a hand on his shoulder and knew without looking that it was Allura.

 

“I can help. Because I’m also a Starling. Although, I’m not Corrupted. The usual color is blue-ish white. I’m the one who had been causing the black holes. Although, they’re not black holes. They’re portals to a different universe. Like when we were on the Altean ship in the other reality. If I had really wanted, I wouldn’t have needed to use a lion.”

 

Silence.

 

Lance finally looked at his teammates, most of which looked sad and hurt. “I’m sorry I never told you.”

 

“Well,” Shiro paused for a moment, debating if he should acknowledge it right now or later. “What are you waiting for? Go save Kraan.”

 

Lance smiled at Shiro, looking at the Corrupted. This was it.


End file.
